Quote Originally Posted by Thorne View Post
I haven't the slightest idea why anyone would voluntarily convert to ANY religion.
I do think it's important to understand though. Religious superstition still does a lot of damage. The subject interests me deeply.

Quote Originally Posted by Thorne View Post
It is my view that all religions only perpetuate superstition, of one form or another. Most people are born into a religious group, the same group their parents where born into. This was the case with myself, but I stepped away from it.

People will join church groups, for social reasons primarily I think, and therefore enter into the religion promulgated by that church. Many of these groups perform good and honerable services to their community. But the propaganda which accompanies those services is pervasive.
These are all nice reasons, but religions tend to make some remarkable claims. Believing things like that we go to heaven after we die isn't just superstition. That's standing all reason on it's head.

If that's all it takes to make people superstitious, then it should be super easy to get people off it? All we need is a scientific comunity club and having meetings where we read scientiffic reports together. Do you really think it's that simple?

Hmm... Maybe that's why Sweden is such an atheist country. We've had socialist comunity clubs for 140 years now where most workers got together in studygroups and studied science. I'm not kidding. It was organised by the unions. It's called ABF, (Arbetarnas Bildningsförbund, ie the workers education society). It's a theory. Anyhoo I'm just thinking aloud. The goal wasn't to get people off religion off-course but to get them more highly qualified jobs. It still may have worked.

Quote Originally Posted by Thorne View Post
And of course, there's always the "convert or die" method of recruiting new members. That's always filled the churches in the past. "God told them to" may not be valid, but "that soldier with the nasty sword told me to" will convert thousands!
Yeah, but that doesn't in the least explain how religion still can survive today in the West. We're suposed to be the educated ones.